Review: The Supreme Court

Author Jeffrey Rosen’s book about “the Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America” describes the underlying characteristic of justices who made a lasting difference – a judicial temperament by which their egos and personal agendas were subservient to the court’s prestige and the nation's welfare.

To make his point, he compares four pairs of personalities:

1. Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall,
2. John Marshall Harlan and Oliver Wendell Holmes,
3. Hugo Black and William O. Douglas, and
4. William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia.

I'll try to sum up the first section in a few sentences.

Jefferson belived in pure majority rule, and envisioned a judiciary subservient to state legislatures (state's rights). Marshall, however, built the court into the strong and independent "third branch" that it is today. Because of his congenial personality, Marshall's legacy is seen in the modern system of checks and balances. Jefferson's vision, when pursued to its end, led to the Civil War.

I'll talk about the second section in my next post.